Questions to Ask When Your Software Vendor has been Acquired

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Corporate mergers and acquisitions are an almost daily occurrence in today’s dynamic business landscape. Consolidation is particularly common in the software industry, where the financial barriers to developing a product can be high, and the pressure for rapid innovation are overwhelming.

Impact of M&As on Customers

While such transitions may have minimal impact for users of consumer-oriented products, it’s a different story for customers who depend on software solutions as key enterprise support systems. In a best case scenario, customers may experience temporary support disruptions, changes in key relationships, and delays in expected product updates. At worst, they may suffer through support headaches and product issues only to ultimately be forced to switch platforms or vendors entirely when the acquiring company mothballs the original offering.

Of course, not every acquisition may be bad for the original vendor’s customers. If your vendor was having financial difficulties or their product was lagging behind the market, clients may feel that things can only get better. But if the product was behind the times, it’s unlikely the new owner acquired your vendor to keep the aging platform going. It’s more likely they wanted small pieces of it to incorporate into their own platform, to gain access to any talented staff, or simply to give the acquirer the inside track when you seek a replacement. And even if the acquirer does intend to maintain the laggard platform, they may face an uphill battle to catch up to the rest of the market — all while better solutions already exist for customers to turn to.

Ask Tough Questions

If your meeting management software vendor has been acquired, you need to start asking the acquiring company and yourself some tough questions about the future of your current solution and whether you’ll need to migrate to another platform. Even if you were just considering choosing the acquired vendor and not yet a customer, the answers will be critical in determining whether the solution is still your best choice.

In this paper, it outlines some key questions you should ask your vendor and yourself when your meeting management software provider (or a supplier that you’re considering) has been acquired, to help you determine whether it’s time to consider switching to an alternative.